Tell Someone Your Plans

Tell Someone Your Plans

Tell someone your plans and leave a date for when to raise the alarm if you haven’t returned.

In New Zealand, it’s expected you’ll tell someone what you’re doing and where you’re going before you go. We call it ‘leaving intentions.’

Because many outdoor locations are remote and have no mobile phone coverage, often with very few people around, if something does go wrong the only way our emergency services can help you is if they know you haven’t returned. Tell a trusted contact. If you’re visiting from overseas and your trusted contacts are back home you can still tell them of your plans.

Common methods for telling someone your plans

Good = Text / Call / IM / Social Media Post / Note - Before you leave, no matter how far you're going, make sure you either Text / Call / IM / Social Media Post / Leave a note. This is recommended for even the shortest of day walks. However, doing this alone can miss a lot of important information and make finding you tricky, but at least you've narrowed the search area down.

Better = Text / Call / IM / Social Media Post / Note + Outdoor Intentions Form - If you're heading out for more than a few hours fill in the form online and send to a trusted contact. It'll step you through what information to leave. If you follow these steps should something go wrong help will be alerted at a certain point regardless of whether you're able to alert anyone yourself.

Best = Text / Call / IM / Social Media Post / Note + Outdoor Intentions Form + Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) - Following these steps will ensure that someone knows your plans, has all the information to hand if something goes wrong and you have an ability to call for help.

Tell a trusted contact your plans and remember to tell them when you have returned.